![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The Falcon 9’s guidance computer aimsedto deploy the satellites into an elliptical orbit at an orbital inclination of 53.2 degrees to the equator. Retention rods released from the Starlink payload stack, allowing the flat-packed satellites to fly free from the Falcon 9’s upper stage in orbit. The 53 spacecraft will unfurl solar arrays and run through automated activation steps, then use krypton-fueled ion engines to maneuver into their operational orbit. Separation of the 53 spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, from the Falcon 9 rocket occurred at T+plus 15 minutes, 24 seconds. Landing of the first stage on Sunday’s mission occurred moments after the Falcon 9’s second stage engine cut off to deliver the Starlink satellites into orbit. ![]() Most recently, the booster flew June 8 with the Egyptian Nilesat 301 geostationary communications satellite. military GPS navigation satellite in November 2020, and launched the all-private Inspiration4 and Axiom-1 crew missions in September 2021 and in April of this year. The booster flying on the Starlink 4-25 mission, known as B1062, launched on its eighth trip to space. Two braking burns slowed the rocket for landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” around 400 miles (650 kilometers) downrange approximately eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The booster stage released from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, then fired pulses from cold gas control thrusters and extended titanium grid fins to help steer the vehicle back into the atmosphere. The rocket exceeded the speed of sound in about one minute, then shut down its nine main engines two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. In the final seven minutes before liftoff, the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines were thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s guidance and range safety systems were also configured for launch.Īfter liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket vetored its 1.7 million pounds of thrust - produced by nine Merlin engines - to steer northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. Helium pressurant also flowed into the rocket in the last half-hour of the countdown. Stationed inside a firing room at a launch control center at Kennedy, SpaceX’s launch team began loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 vehicle at T-minus 35 minutes. The launch Sunday marked the 53rd SpaceX mission primarily dedicated to hauling Starlink internet satellites into orbit. With Sunday’s mission, designated Starlink 4-25, SpaceX has launched 2,957 Starlink internet satellites, including prototypes and test units no longer in service. Deployment of the 53 flat-packed satellites from the Falcon 9’s upper stage occurred about 15 minutes after liftoff. The rocket headed northeast from the Kennedy Space Center, aiming to deliver the flat-packed broadband relay stations to an orbit ranging between 144 miles and 210 miles in altitude (232-by-338 kilometers). The Falcon 9 booster landed on SpaceX’s drone ship parked downrange in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Cape Canaveral. Liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 9:38 a.m. SpaceX sent another cluster of 53 Starlink internet satellites into orbit Sunday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the company’s 33rd mission of the year and sixth launch of July. ![]()
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